Reminders of personal encounter

Lars Lindahl

Lars Lindahl is a clinical psychologist trained in family therapy mostly by Walter Kempler. He started his research efforts in social psychology at the Univ. of Boulder, Co., USA and ended up at the Univ. of Uppsala, Sweden compiling his dissertation (1976) on changes in group therapy. Professional supervision, a clinical practice and organizational consultations have kept him busy.

REMINDERS represents the author's chief emerging realizations by systematically viewing problems and help within an experiential family therapeutic perspective. Ample considerations on behavior deemed problematic are imparted as well as the allegedly desired qualities, skills and knowledge of the presumptive helper.Young people ought never to be diagnosed with the traditional psychopathological labels. Exhaustive descriptions will do, even though the youngster is exacting to live with. Descriptive statement by necessity will invole the context, and this is only rightfully so since context always holds a heavy hand in the present becoming and development of the young person. Descriptive statements will be of a more decisive diagnostic value.Tagging is frequently uncalled for. It represents a step of empowerment of the diagnostician, the emperor's new clothes in incessant remaking. Helpers far too often avoid contextual involvement and make assumptions, generalizations and conceptualizations by extracting restricted aspects of the reality they ought to address. The price tag for this sorry state of affairs must exclusively be attached to the client.The aspiration of REMINDERS is mostly to emphatically reinstate the experiential voice of the individual, and to remind helpers that the territory they enter is love's striving and hopeful manifestations. This is an area in which experts are conspicuous by their abscence. The presence and intervention of helpers have a definite but restricted applicability and say. Helper enactment capacity at experiential negotiation is the byword. In the wake of good enough personal encounter asymptomatic and growth-inducing relatedness becomes feasible.